The 29th MAYDAY! Peace Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College will take place Wednesday, April 29 with a theme of “Tiananmen +20 Years.” This annual event devoted to a topic related to human rights and social justice will reflect on life in China, 20 years after the protest and massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
The daylong conference will feature a morning and afternoon keynote address as well as several workshops. Dr. Andrew Nathan, author and Chinese affairs specialist from Columbia University will deliver the morning keynote address. Dr. Yang Jianli, author and leading advocate for China’s democracy will deliver the afternoon keynote address.
Nathan’s talk, titled “Prospects for Democratization Twenty Years Later,” will begin at 10 a.m. in Christ Chapel. Jianli’s talk, titled “Massacre, Miracle, and Model,” will begin at 2:30 p.m. in Christ Chapel.
Nathan is a political science professor at Columbia University whose teaching and research interests include Chinese politics and foreign policy, the comparative study of political participation and political culture, and human rights. He is the author of many books, including Human Rights in Contemporary China, Chinese Democracy, and China’s New Rulers: The Secret Files.
Jianli was a Tiananmen Square activist in 1989 before emigrating to the United States to earn two Ph.D.s — one in political economy from Harvard University and another in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley. Despite being blacklisted by the Chinese government for his political activism, he returned to his homeland in April 2002 on a friend’s passport to witness labor unrest in Northeast China. Jianli was detained while trying to board an internal flight, and in 2004 was sentenced to five years in prison on espionage and illegal entry charges. In August of 2007 he was allowed to return to the United States.
In addition to the feature presentations and workshop sessions, a “Democracy Wall,” made of canvas will provide guests an opportunity to exchange ideas, offer a poem, draw a picture, and celebrate free speech by being part of a lively, honest, and respectful dialogue. The PBS documentary “The Tank Man,” will also be shown continuously in the Evelyn Young Dining Room.
The full schedule for the day is as follows:
- Registration / 9-11 a.m. / Linner Lounge, O.J Johnson Student Union
- Welcoming Service and Morning Keynote Address by Dr. Andrew Nathan / 10 a.m. / Christ Chapel
- Break / 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
- Workshop Session I / 12:30-1:20 p.m. / Alumni Hall and The Dive, Johnson Student Union
- Workshop Session II / 1:30-2:20 p.m. / Alumni Hall and The Dive, Johnson Student Union.
- Afternoon Keynote Address by Dr. Yang Jianli / 2:30 p.m. / Christ Chapel
- Closing Ceremony and Reception / 3:30 p.m. / Christ Chapel
Dating back to 1982, the MAYDAY! Peace Conference signifies the international distress call as well as a call to action. Previous conferences have focused on topics such as land rights, violence in the community, hunger, food security, global water issues, and Africa’s AIDS crisis.
First established by Florence and the late Raymond Sponberg of North Mankato, Minn., the conference is free of charge and open to the public. For more information about the conference, contact the Gustavus Office of Marketing and Communication at 507-933-7520 or marketing@gustavus.edu.
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